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++++Message 2030. . . . . . . . . . . . Re: James Houck Article

From: kilroy@ceoexpress.com> . . . . . . . . . . . . 9/26/2004 5:21:00 PM

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I met James Houck in Philadelphia PA when he was 93 yrs.old. He was with Wally

P. and they were doing the Back to Basics talk. He did say that he was at one

time drunk but he also said that "he got sober in the Oxford Group and that he

did not leave the Oxford Group to go with Bill W.

Kilroy W

Philadelphia PA

--- "Bernadette MacLeod" wrote:

I met James Houck at the Wilson House in East Dorset, Vermont at a seminar he

participated in and he told me he was never a member of AA.

Bernadette

----- Original Message -----

From: johnpine@comcast.net

To: AAHistoryLovers@yahoogroups.com

Sent: Friday, September 24, 2004 11:09 AM

Subject: Re: [AAHistoryLovers] James Houck Article

Has Houck ever been a member of A.A. or identified himself as a recovering

alcoholic in his talks? Thanks. John Pine, Richmond, VA

-------------- Original message --------------

So close yet so far. This James Houck article made the online issue of Time

magazine, but not the circulation copy in magazine stores. It can be found at

www.time.com:

TIME BONUS SECTION OCTOBER 2004: GENERATIONS

Living Recovery

A man who knew the founder of A.A. has had a 70year quest to help other

problem drinkers

By Melissa August/Towson

-From the Sep. 27, 2004 issue of TIME magazine

It was on a cold day in 1934 that James Houck hit bottom. Newly wedded and

living in Frederick, Md., he was getting drunk every weekend - and sometimes

even during the week - on home brew. He had recently been in a drunken-driving

accident in his employer's car, and his drinking had estranged him from his

wife

sorry

sips from his mother's bottle of dandelion wine, then make up the difference

with water. Although he grew up in the middle of Prohibition, his drinking

problem only got worse as the years passed.

On Dec. 11, a friend who thought Houck needed to make some changes took him

to a meeting at the local YMCA of the Oxford Group, an evangelical society

founded in Britain by Frank Buchman that was prominent in the 1920s. Houck was

immediately drawn to the group's teachings, which were based on four

principles:

honesty, purity, unselfishness and love. He was especially moved by the

concept

of "two-way" prayer: the group taught that if you spent quiet time every day

restitution, to "put right what's wrong in your life," says Houck.

It was at those Oxford Group meetings that Houck befriended Bill Wilson,

a.k.a. Bill W., a chronic drinker who would go on to co-found Alcoholics

Anonymous (A.A.) in 1939. Houck joined the Oxford Group and became sober on

Dec.

have attended Oxford Group meetings with Wilson, who died in 1971.

Houck remembers Wilson well, and after a 40-year career as an electrical

engineer and salesman, he has made it his mission to bring the Oxford Group's

teachings to a new generation of recovering alcoholics. In the early 1970s, he

started working with longshoremen on the Baltimore docks, and until recently,

he

traveled every six weeks or so, giving talks to members of 12-step programs,

recovering addicts who telephone from around the world. He still appears at

meetings held within driving distance of his home in Towson, Md., and shares

the

with

Houck wants to restore the old methods the Oxford Group used, in particular

its spiritual aspects, which he believes are stronger and more effective than

the ones currently practiced in A.A. The principles of the group live on in

the

Back to Basics organization, which follows a 12-step program similar to that

techniques

in federal and state prisons and is working directly with 300 prisoners in the

Henrico County Jail East, in Richmond, Va.

Houck knows how much a group like this can mean to someone. After he decided

on Dec. 12, 1934, that he would never drink alcohol again, he made restitution

with his wife and others he had harmed. "I started telling my wife what kind

of

a fellow I was," he says. "I did this for three nights to get all of the

out. I wanted to be honest about everything in my life." He says his wife was

grateful for the talk and then understood his behavior. "Now we could start

our

time

cancer in 1988, but believes the lessons learned from the Oxford Group gave

him

a life he had not been sure was possible. "A marriage that wasn't supposed to

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++++Message 2031. . . . . . . . . . . . RE: Big Book Printed

From: Robert Stonebraker . . . . . . . . . . . . 9/26/2004 8:40:00 PM

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Dear

History Lovers,

two more printings of the first edition than listed below, sixteen in all.

10.0pt;font-family:Arial;">The fifteenth printing was,

January, 1954 and the sixteenth printing was August, 1954. Please see the

attachment from my

sixteenth printing of the first edition. .

Bob S.

-----Original

*From:* wilfried antheunis

[mailto:wilant@sympatico.ca]

*Sent:* Saturday, September 25, 2004

3:30 PM

*To:*

*Subject:* Re: [AAHistoryLovers] Big

Book Printed

Hi

Tommy, I should have sent this earlier, was looking for more information and

printings and number of copies printed. But this relates to the first and

second edition. If I find more, I will post it.

ciao

*Printing

History of the First Edition*

********************************************

First

Printing, April, 1939

Third Printing, June, 1942

Fourth Printing, March, 1943

Fifth Printing, January, 1944

Sixth Printing, June, 1944

Seventh Printing, January, 1945

Eighth Printing, February, 1945

Ninth Printing, January, 1946

Tenth Printing, August, 1946

Eleventh Printing, June 1947

Twelfth Printing, October, 1948

Thirteenth Printing, February, 1950

Fourteenth Printing, July, 1951

*

12.0pt;color:black;font-weight:bold;">Alcoholics

Alcoholics Anonymous Second Edition, First Printing 1955, (28,000 Printed)

Alcoholics Anonymous Second Edition, Second Printing 1956, (23,000 Printed)

Alcoholics Anonymous Second Edition, Third Printing 1957, (21,000 Printed)

Alcoholics Anonymous Second Edition, Fourth Printing 1960, (20,000 Printed)

Alcoholics Anonymous Second Edition, Fifth Printing 1962, (Quantity printed is

unknown)

Alcoholics Anonymous Second Edition, Sixth Printing 1963, (Quantity printed is

unknown)

Alcoholics Anonymous Second Edition, Seventh Printing 1965, (Quantity printed

is unknown)

Alcoholics Anonymous Second Edition, Eighth Printing 1966, (Quantity printed

is

unknown)

unknown)

unknown)

is unknown)

Alcoholics Anonymous Second Edition, Thirteenth Printing 1972, (Quantity

printed is unknown)

Alcoholics Anonymous Second Edition, Fourteenth Printing 1973, (Total 1973

Printings 1,000,000)

Alcoholics Anonymous Second Edition, Fifteenth Printing 1973, (Total 1973

Printings 1,000,000)

Alcoholics Anonymous Second Edition, Sixteenth Printing 1974

-----

*

From:

*To:* AAHistoryLovers@yahoogroups.com

*Sent:*

Friday, September 24, 2004 10:42 AM

Hi Tommy

following from the final report of

the 2002 General Service Conference (pg 15).

Big Book

1st edition

- 300,000 copies

were distributed from 1939 to 1955

2nd edition

- 1,150,000 copies

were distributed from 1955 to 1976

3rd edition -19,550,000 copies

were distributed from 1976 to 2002

In 2002, the

Conference approved publication of the 4th edition Big Book.

More than

2,000,000 copies of the 4th edition have been distributed so far.

The price of

the 4th edition was initially set at $5.00 as a special introductory price.

It returned to

its regular price this year.

Cheers

-----

*From:* Tom

Hickcox

*To:* AAHistoryLovers@yahoogroups.com

2004 9:46 AM

*Subject:*

[AAHistoryLovers] Big Book Printed

I am interested in the number of Big Books in each of the printings of the

First, Second, Third, and Fourth Editions.

Could someone point me towards the data?

Tommy in Baton Rouge

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++++Message 2032. . . . . . . . . . . . Bill''s Detox from Seconal

From: jimmy . . . . . . . . . . . . 9/27/2004 12:12:00 AM

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I recently was listening to a taped interview of a deceased longtimer in my

area. He mentioned in the interview that four members (Al Marino, Chuck

Chamberlain, and two others) went to New York to detox Bill Wilson off of a

five year long addiction to Seconal.

Can anyone corroborate or refute this second-hand information?

Jimmy

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++++Message 2033. . . . . . . . . . . . more information on first editions

From: bikergaryg@aol.com . . . . . . . . . . . . 9/27/2004 2:11:00 AM

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since we are on the subject of big books! can any one break down how many of

each first editions where printed, to include how many green, light blue and

dark blue in the first of four printings. why the 1st Ed, 7th printing

{Seventh Printing, January 1945}

so rare? one rumor, most where sent overseas and sunk on a supply ship.

I could be wrong {please correct me}but I was told 4,750 of the big red {1st

edition 1st printing} and then 5000 each until the 11th printing.

thanks for your help

collecting old big books does not keep one sober, it keeps one broke.

Gary

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Part 1 of 3

From: Lash, William \(Bill\) . . . . . . . . . . . . 9/29/2004 9:28:00 AM

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The following book was part of the source material for the writing of the

Big Book in 1938. For instance, on page 59 of the Big Book it says, "Half

measures avail us nothing." What a coincidence, in "The Common Sense of

Drinking" it says, "Halfway measures are of no avail." On page 32 of the Big

Book it tells the story of "A man of thirty...made up his mind that until he

had been successful at business and had retired, he would not touch another

drop (of alcohol)...after a successful and happy business career he then

fell victim to the belief that he could drink like other men...he went to

pieces quickly and was dead within four years." What a shocker, "The Common

Sense of Drinking" includes a story, "Some years ago there lived a man who

decided to give up drinking until he could make a million dollars, at which

time he intended to drink in moderation. It took him five years - of

sobriety - to make the million; then he began his 'moderate' drinking. In

two or three years he lost all his money, and in another three he died of

alcoholism." These are just two examples of many so read on. - Barefoot Bill

The Common Sense of Drinking

By Richard R. Peabody

Boston: Little Brown and Co. (1930)

INTRODUCTION

In the twentieth century, with its high-pressure demands on nervous systems

which have not yet become adapted to big business, mass production,

telephones, automobiles, high economic standards, - in fact, bigger, faster,

and noisier living conditions, -alcohol has come to play an ever-increasing

part as a narcotic, rather than a mere social stimulant. Because so many can

use it in moderation, and because of its social aspect, alcohol is seldom

thought of as a drug -not, at least, until it has done its ruinous work on

certain organisms that have proved unable to resist it.

I propose in this book to define the alcoholic, to show how he arrived at

this condition, and by what method he may rid himself of his habit once and

for all. While aimed primarily at the chronic inebriate the subject will, I

think, be of interest to all who drink, more especially as it may show them

where they stand on the line that separates moderation from excess.

Several years' experience in treating chronic alcoholism has shown me that

it is perfectly possible to cultivate abstinence under certain conditions.

It is a far easier task than the alcoholic has any idea of, provided that a

scientific approach is made to the problem. Vague theories based on

undirected will power are ineffective in the long run. Above all it must be

remembered that eradication of the habit and temporary abstinence represent

two totally different states of mind.

This book is in no way concerned with the arguments for and against

Prohibition, which roar louder and louder throughout the land. Needless to

say, after ten years of the Volstead Act there still seem to be a great many

men who are unable to regulate properly their consumption of the liquor they

so easily obtain.

Drinking is a manifestation of the wish to escape from reality. The illusory

charm of drink comes from the fact that the mental reactions to alcohol are

extremely satisfying to certain basic psychological urges. Let any man

reflect on his sensations subsequent to taking a drink and I think he will

agree that the resultant feelings consist (1) of calmness, poise, and

relaxation; (2) of self-satisfaction, self-confidence, and self-importance.

While the satisfaction of the demands for peace of mind and ego-maximation

by alcohol may be legitimate for the average man who can control the use of

it, certain individuals, normal in other ways, have an abnormal reaction to

drinking. It is too fascinating to them. It poisons their nervous systems.

Those who react in this manner must eliminate drink from their lives or

suffer very serious consequences. If they are willing, these people can be

shown how to train their minds so that they no longer wish to drink. They

can learn to relax and to satisfy their egos in a manner that is

constructive and permanent.

I have taken care to omit from my discussion all moralizing, knowing full

well that the uncontrolled drinker is surfeited with it already, however

true and justified it may be. He must be aware of all the reasons that his

well-meaning friends and relatives have given him in regard to the harm that

he is doing himself, to say nothing of his neglected obligations toward

others.

Neither is the subject approached from the physiological side. Much

effects of alcohol on the bodily tissues. If these books should not be

accessible to the individual seeking such information, a short conversation

with a physician will shed sufficient light upon this important phase of the

subject to leave no doubt in his mind of the harm that results from

persistently subjecting the body to large and continuous doses of alcohol.

The explanation of excessive drinking lies in the field of abnormal

psychology rather than in that of physiology or ethics. As a background to

almost every case of chronic alcoholism there exists an inner nervous

condition akin to the " unreasonable" feelings of anxiety and inferiority

suffered by the abnormally nervous. It is precisely this condition - of

which moderate drinkers and other so-called normal people are fortunately

unaware - that makes hard and persistent drinking (on the part of those who

cannot stand it) so incomprehensible. If friends and relatives wish to be of

assistance, they must learn to realize that the nervous person with

"imaginary" troubles is just as much in need of help as if he had an acute

organic malady. Indeed, those who have experienced both forms of suffering

would prefer to repeat the physical rather than the mental if they had to

choose between the two evils. It is for the former alone, however, that they

customarily receive sympathy.

The more the problem is imaginary, unreasonable, illogical, the harder it is

to bear, because the individual suffering from it has neither the respect

nor the sympathy of the outside world. What is worse, he has lost caste in

his own eyes: he criticizes himself mercilessly, so that the resulting state

of mind is one of fear and depression often bordering on terror. While the

alcoholic in many cases may not seem to be deserving of pity, he

nevertheless to some extent belongs to an unhappy class of neurotics,

however much he may keep his mental discomfiture from the outside world or

try to pretend to himself that he is free from it. It does him no good to be

told that his troubles are his own fault and that all he has to do to get

over them is to stop drinking. Though in a sense this may be true, it is of

no help, because he is often motivated by inner forces of which he is

unaware and over which, without scientific assistance, he has no sustained

control.

mind as intelligently as it does for the body, and that the pain resulting

from a broken spirit should no more be faced courageously alone than that

resulting from a broken leg. Yet what could be more indicative of a broken

spirit than the perpetual attempt to escape from reality through excessive

drinking ?

Reality must be faced unaided by alcohol or any other drug. For the more.

Responsible concerns of life, a state of mind wherein the individual

actually doe; not want to drink must be attained. Such a possibility may

seem so remote to a man who has been habitually drinking to excess that its

mere suggestion is sufficient to make him shrug his shoulders in

contemptuous skepticism, even though he would be free to admit that his

present way of life is far from satisfactory. Yet it has been demonstrated

over and over again that, in spite of the desires of the moment, sincere men

and women anxious to work faithfully toward the goal of not drinking because

they do not want to can create this relatively serene attitude of mind with

far less hardship than they probably imagine.

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION

I THE CONDITION

1 THE PERSONAL PROBLEM

2 THE "ALCOHOLIC" DEFINED

3 TYPES OF DRINKERS

4 THE EFFECT OF INHERITANCE

5 THE EFFECT OF ENVIRONMENT

6 THE ATTITUDE OF MIND

7 DANGER SIGNALS

II DIAGNOSIS

1 A TYPICAL CASE

2 SELF-ANALYSIS

3 THE ROOTS OF THE TROUBLE

4 WINE WOMEN AND INTERIORITY

5 PSYCHOANALYSIS

III FIRST STEPS

1 SURRENDER

2 FUTURE DRINKING

3 ECONOMIC FREEDOM

4 THE FAMILY

5 THE PATIENT

6 SELF-PERSUASION

IV THE CURE MADE EFFECTIVE

1 THE MIND

2 OCCUPATION

3 THE BODY

4 RELAXATION AND SUGGESTION

5 READING AND WRITING

6 LIVING BY SCHEDULE

7 THE NOTEBOOK AND WILL POWER

8 PITFALLS

9 THE GENERAL EFFECT

SUMMARY

THE CONDITION

I. THE PERSONAL PROBLEM

Not long ago I interviewed a man who had decided that alcohol as a beverage

had reduced him to a condition that lay somewhere between inefficiency and

discontent, on the one hand, and potential ruination on the other. He could

not confine his drinking to the occasion of which it was supposed to be a

part, but continued it for at least one and often more successive days. In

other words, he belonged to a class of people known as alcoholics.

Though emotionally out of hand, he was intellectually honest, and therefore

he had no delusions as to his ability to confine his indulgence within

normal time limits. One drink always led to another, and, what was far more

serious, one night almost invariably led to another day. Every so often,

medical intervention was necessary. He said to me, " I know I cannot stand

alcohol. I must confess that an infrequent and short sojourn on the 'water

wagon' is all that my efforts to control my habit amount to. I have been

admonished until I am sick of it, although what has been said to me is

perfectly true and unquestionably deserved. Much of it has been said by

people whose opinions I respect, people who in most instances themselves

drink. While I have been severely criticized a few times, to be sure, I have

as a rule met with more kindness than I have a right to expect. Furthermore,

I have given myself many talks in the same vein which seem to me to be even

better than those I have listened to. I have made resolutions not to drink

at all as well as to drink with various limitations, but, except for an

occasional month or fortnight spent 'on the wagon' in discontented sobriety,

I never seem to get anywhere. Once I stayed on for six months, but I have

never wanted to try to repeat the experience, if for no other reason than

that I don't think I could. Needless to say, I fell off with a crash and

started making up for lost time, though it had not been my original

intention to do so."

Because he had ability as a salesman, a position which did not require daily

attendance at the office, he kept his job. Because he was attractive, made

money, and was always kind even under the effects of alcohol, he kept his

wife. Because he was endowed with a strong physical constitution, he

apparently kept his health. Nevertheless he unquestionably stated the truth

when he said, " If I keep this life up much longer, I don't see how I can

fail to lose everything."

This individual, while Intelligent and educated, is nevertheless a typical

drunkard of the somewhat milder variety. He might drink even less and still

be classed as a chronic alcoholic, but on the other hand he has by no means

reached the lowest depths of disintegration as a result of his habit. While

genuinely anxious to allay a condition that has become alarming, he does not

in truth understand his present situation or Its potentialities for the

future, nor is he understood by his fellow beings. By his family, friends,

and the public in general he is condemned out of hand as being a moral

delinquent who could perfectly well control himself if he wanted to do so.

In their criticism moderate drinkers, often show less sympathetic

understanding of his condition than teetotalers. This the sufferer from

alcoholism puts down as hypocrisy, when in reality it is misunderstanding.

His actions are quite naturally considered at their face value without

regard to inner impulses and their causes. "Why can't that fellow handle

liquor the way I do?" is the comment of the normal drinker. "There is no

need for anyone to make a fool of himself once he has had enough," he adds,

and forthwith proceeds to instruct the alcoholic in how to drink moderately,

not realizing that he is attempting to teach what can never be learned.

Ignorance and good intentions often work closely together. The conduct of

the alcoholic need not be condoned, but his personality and his problems

must be understood if he is to be helped.

2. THE "ALCOHOLIC" DEFINED

What is a "'drunkard," " inebriate," or " alcoholic " ? In the use of

alcohol as a beverage there is a descending scale of mental as well as

physical reaction, increasingly pathological, beginning with almost total

abstinence and ending with delirium tremens, alcoholic dementia, and death.

Just where on this scale chronic alcoholism begins is open to a variety of

opinion, but for practical working purposes I draw the dividing line between

those to whom a night's sleep habitually represents the end of an alcoholic

occasion and those to whom it is only an unusually long period of

abstention. The former class, which will be referred to as normal, includes

the man who limits himself to a casual glass of beer, as well as the man who

is intoxicated every evening. But at worst they are hard drinkers, going

soberly about their business in the daytime, seeking escape from social

rather than subjective suppressions, and to be definitely distinguished from

the morning drinkers, who are, to all intents and purposes, chronic

alcoholics, inebriates, or drunkards. There are normal men who occasionally

indulge in a premeditated debauch, and who sometimes start the next day with

a drink; but, by and large, the men who can drink and remain psychologically

integrated avoid it the next day until evening (midday social events

excepted).

More than one drunkard has told me that the first drink "the morning after"'

was by all odds the best of all. They say it makes them feel as if they were

coming back to life, as if they were no longer going crazy, and so forth.

Such sentiments as these are absolutely incomprehensible to the normal

drinker, to whom the idea of an "eye-opener" is almost always repulsive, no

matter how much liquor he may have had before going to bed. I recognize, of

course, that there is a small group of men who drink slowly and steadily day

in and day out without any apparent psychic deterioration. Physically, they

almost always break down in the long run, but, as this book does not deal

with the physiological side of drinking, we shall disregard them except to

say that their drinking is so methodical, their systems are so adapted to

it, that as far as pleasure goes it does little more than bring them up to

"par," actually a state somewhat below that in which they would be if they

did not drink at all. If by chance they want to get a real "kick," they have

to drink a prodigious quantity. Then there is a very much larger group than

the one just referred to, who from time to time go on a premeditated spree,

such as a class reunion or a New Year's week-end, and yet who by no stretch

of the imagination can be considered alcoholics.

Lastly, there are a very few exceptions to the general rule who do take a

drink the next morning to lessen the punishment resulting from a hard night,

but who do not increase the dosage as time goes on. In spite of these

exceptions, however, I think we may be justified in making the statement

that those who can use alcohol successfully generally terminate the drinking

of any particular occasion when they go to bed at night. On awakening, such

sickness as alcohol may have caused them is of the body; their unimpaired

nervous system sets up no cry for more. They are content to pay the price of

their "good time" because the price is not unendurable; it has not changed

much, if any, from their early drinking days.

But the drunkard with his nerves on edge is in a different plight. Once he

has taken a drink he is quite rightly said to be 'offagain." When his

friends are going to their offices, enduring such hangovers as they may

have, he is back at the 'speakeasy.'' If he appears at his work at all, it

is only after he has been heavily 'braced'' to avoid the nervousness and

depression of a 'morning after,'' which he has become too cowardly to face.

At lunch time he imbibes again to avoid the hardships of the afternoon. At

five o'clock he can hardly wait to shake up his cocktails, and by late

evening he is drunk again. Sooner or later, depending upon his particular

stage of disintegration, he is unable to carry on his business at all until

he has passed through a somewhat painful period of "drying out.'' Shortly

after such a recovery the cycle recommences, with the alcoholic periods

becoming longer and more intense. The resulting worry and feeling of guilt

give the mind no rest when sober, in consequence of which these intervals

become shorter and the nervous system receives no chance at all for

recuperation. The victim is caught in an increasingly vicious circle.

Drunkenness, acute nervous hangover, remorse, feelings of inferiority; then

drunkenness again. A sanitarium may check temporarily the outward expression

of this state of mind, but the inner urge continues to exist.

3. TYPES OF DRlNKERS

What sort of people reach this unfortunate condition and by what route? It

is interesting - if somewhat disheartening for the purposes of determining

causes - to note that the group which may be designated as "pathologically

alcoholic " comprises persons from all walks of life, reared under the most

varied conditions and undergoing the most diverse experiences. Racially, we

might say that the Slavs, Teutons, and Anglo-Saxons are less able to control

their consumption of alcohol than the Latins and Orientals, even though we

should of course expect individual exceptions to the rule. Geographically,

those living in the cooler climates seem more disposed to abuse liquor than

those situated nearer the equator, though for some peculiar reason

northerners who move south are apt to drink more than anybody else. The idea

suggests itself that, inasmuch as drinking can be reduced to terms of

nervous instability, it tends to be predominant among those who have a

larger surplus of easily stimulated nervous energy and hence feel the need

of something that in the last analysis soothes far more than it elates.

When we investigate any particular group, we find the most strikingly

contrasted persons succumbing to excessive drinking. The rich and the poor,

the highly intellectual and the ignorant, the frail and the robust, the shy

and the apparently bold, the worried and the seemingly carefree, all furnish

their quota of inebriates. We find that this unhappy group includes people

of accomplishment as well as those who achieve nothing, the religious and

the unbeliever, those with an interest in life and those without one, those

who love and are loved, and those who are alone in the world. Among all

these opposites and the many that come between we find a relatively small

percentage, but a large actual number, whose nervous system cannot withstand

alcohol in any quantity whatsoever.

While there are enough apparently confident and successful individuals who

succumb to alcoholism to make impossible any hard and fast limitations to a

particular type of personality, still the large majority of cases are found

among those who are shy, egocentric, and shut in. Jung has designated these

people as introverts. They are ably described by Dr. Abraham Myerson in his

book, The Foundations of Personality: "There are relatively normal types of

the heavy drinker - the socially minded and the hard manual worker. But

there is a large group of those who find in alcohol a relief from the burden

of their moods, who find in its real effect the release from inhibitions, a

reason for drinking beyond the reach of reason…

"And so men with certain types of temperament, or with unhappy experiences,

form the alcoholic habit because it gives them surcease from pain; it deals

out to them, temporarily, a new world with happier mood, lessened tension,

and greater success…

"Seeking relief from distressing thoughts and moods is perhaps one of the

main causes of the narcotic habit. The feeling of inferiority, one of the

most painful of mental conditions, is responsible for the use not only of

alcohol but also of other drugs, such as cocaine, heroin, morphine, etc."

The italics are mine.

4. THE EFFECT OF INHERITANCE

Unfortunately we can give no scientific explanation for the creation of

alcoholics.

Exceptions to any closed system of causal relationship would stare us in the

face at every turn. The study of many inebriates, however, has given

definite clues to certain features which have a distinct bearing on the

majority of situations, so that within limits we can recognize the forces

that have an influence on the shaping of an alcoholic career.

The first question to be considered is inheritance. To what extent are

parents responsible for the development of this trait in their offspring

through the transmission of the germ plasm? Without going into Statistics a

cursory examination of this situation shows, first, that among the children

of alcoholics there is seldom more than one in a family with this

propensity. Secondly, that a much greater number have children who drink

normally and in no sense as drunkards. Conversely, a great many alcoholics

are born of parents who are temperate in their use of alcohol, in some cases

being total abstainers. This would seem to indicate that a man does not

acquire chronic alcoholism from his father or mother. Many inebriates use

inheritance as an excuse, because it has become a sort of prejudice or credo

to do so, but when they are carefully questioned they do not consider that

they have any inborn taste or craving for liquor, once they have completely

sobered up.

At all events, whatever the validity of inheritance as a cause, it has been

definitely proved over and over again that it offers no insurmountable

obstacle, or, for that matter, any additional impediment, to the overcoming

of the habit once a man has definitely made up his mind to do so. What

unquestionably is inherited is a nervous system which proves to be

nonresistant to alcohol, though this same nervous system is more often

acquired from neurotic parents who have expressed their nervousness in some

other manner than that of chronic intoxication. just as a disposition to

weak lungs is inherited and not tuberculosis itself, so I believe is a

nervous system transmitted which is highly susceptible to alcohol and which

may manifest itself in a variety of symptoms regardless of the original

manner of expression. An investigation of the inheritance of alcoholics

indicates in almost every case a neurotic history at least on one side of

the family, and often to an extreme degree. While parents may be exonerated

as far as the direct inheritance of alcoholism is concerned, they cannot

escape the blame for an injudicious early environment which they themselves

have created. For many parents the bringing up of a child should require

study and instruction from those who have made a business of treating

children from the psychiatric point of view, particularly if the child

presents difficult problems at an early age. Because a woman has had six or

seven children does not mean that she has been an intelligent mother, as the

lives of many members of large families bear witness. Mothers and fathers

with the best intentions in the world can ruin a child's future because of a

silly superstition that nature endowed all women, and some men, with a

superior instinct for performing a very difficult task - namely, the

efficient rearing of children.

I am reminded of Dr. Austin F. Riggs's statement in his book, Intelligent

Living: "The relation of grown-ups to children is second to none in

importance, whether the grownups be parents, foster parents, or teachers.

Obviously the future of civilization depends upon its children. The

responsibility which they present to their parents and all other grown-ups

is both immediate and absolutely non-transferable."

Certain features in the lives of many patients have stood out so clearly

that it is pertinent to set forth what seem to be a few but indisputable

instances of bad bringing up. Too much prudishness and restraint either

break a child's spirit so that he is never free from parental authority or,

as a slightly better choice of two evils, drive him into open revolt. His

mind must either become a vassal to that of his more dominating parent, or

he must over-assert himself to prevent this surrender. If to preserve his

own personality he has been on the defensive with his family, he may in

later life become unconsciously hostile to the restrictions of society

without being in the least a misanthrope, and may feel that he is satisfying

a morbid desire for self-assertion (freedom) by an over-indulgence in

alcohol.

The spoiled child, on the other hand, receives no discipline at all, and so

is unprepared to meet the world on anything like a give-and-take basis.

Confronted with reality and finding it unfriendly compared to the

unrestrained solicitude of his doting parents, he has a tendency to seek

refuge in a parent substitute, something that will dull his

hyper-sensitiveness and make him feel in harmony once more with an

unsympathetic environment. It is for this reason that the majority of

alcoholics are recruited from the ranks of only children and youngest sons.

In his study, The Structure and Meaning of Psycho-analysis, Dr. William

Healy makes an interesting observation.

"Rigel," he says, "makes much of a matter which comes frequently to the

front in the modem child guidance clinic. He says that all sorts of

considerations make it clear that normal psychic development depends upon

the gradual emergence from a condition of parental authority. Failure in

such a development will result in a relatively feeble adult personality.

More dangers lie in the direction of too great rather than too little

dependence on the efforts and guidance of the parents or their substitutes.

However too sudden or too complete revolt from parental guidance and

tradition may be productive of a bias against every kind of authority and

convention."

Again, if the parents have been of equal influence and have taken opposite

attitudes, or if the more influential has frequently changed his or her

attitude, the individual grows up with a twofold ideal of self. He is of

unstable temperament because he does not know whether to think of himself as

a saint or a sinner, a success or a failure. One minute he has

overconfidence and the next none at all. Now he may be elated for no

particular reason, and now unduly depressed. These feelings may be

semiconscious or they may be entirely unconscious and only demonstrate

themselves in behavior.

However, when confronted by situations calling for mature judgment or

courage, a person brought up in the manner outlined is unequal to the

occasion and, having already tasted alcohol as a matter of social custom, he

flies to it as a refuge, knowing that for the time being he can have the

courage and poise that he craves and that temporarily he will have

compensation for his deficiencies.

Brutality, neglect, and the deliberate teaching of pernicious doctrines are

so obviously detrimental to a child's welfare that they do not merit

discussion. Rather, I shall conclude this all-important phase of parental

influence by summoning to my argument four important quotations, the first

two from Dr. Karl A. Menninger's The Human Mind and the latter two from Dr.

Alfred Adler's Understanding Human Nature.

"The neurotic personality," says Menninger, "is one whose primitive

instincts have been modified to meet social demands only with painful

difficulty…This difficulty arises because of the prejudices,

misapprehensions, shocks, rebukes, experiences, and parental examples of